I here a lot of talk from people who are amazed at the kind of grass roots, home grown support that Howard Dean has managed to gather. People on the Republican side, laugh and say he's too liberal to be a threat in the general election. People in the other Republican Party, known as Democrats(especially the insider ones) are worried because someone who's more outside the their control and traditional way of doing business is doing well without their political Machine working for him. So while many people now acknowledge that he may win the democratic nomination they claim that he's unelectable in a general election because he's too liberal. What is so liberal about Howard Dean? 1.He's in favor of a balanced budget. 2.Dean cut income taxes in VT. and also decreased the standing debt. Listen to this quote: Summing up his key issues in Spring 2002, Dean stated, "The issues are: balance the budget and stop spending and borrowing--the borrow and spend policy of the 80's. Two, health care for every American. And three, investing in early childhood and early education because the huge payoff there on the other end of having to put less money into corrections." 3.Dean's healthcare program is simple, and workable. He's a MD himself, and while governor his plan ended up getting virtually every child under eighteen years of age covered. He was a doctor and his wife still is a practicing physician. He knows the inside workings as well as the political angle. So basically with everyone in both parties believing that Dean couldn't do it, he's done it. Maybe they don't want an outsider to win, and put out the hype before hand that he's too liberal to win the general election. I disagree. I think that if he gets that far, he'll have to stage needed to dispell that myth that he's way far to the left. He may be outside the control of the Democratic insider party machine, but the guy is not some left wing extremist. Here's a reference for more information. http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/dean.html
i remember another certain "outsider" , Gov from small state, unknown, no one gave a chance of winning...
Why is Howard Dean considered a liberal? That's an easy one. Because he's not George W. Bush, and anything slightly to the left of reactionary is a "gol-durned liburul". I agree with you. Liberal? Hardly. If you had to place a label on him, I would choose "populist".
His campaign is attempting to appeal to the liberal base of the party moreso than anyone else running (and really anyone else who has seriously run in a while). Because his campaign is relatively liberal, he's going to be branded as a liberal despite his track-record as a more middle-of-the-road guy.
Perhaps in the primary he is, but that's because the labor union support and other parts insider democrats are already sewn up. That's what's left. But should he win the Primary his middle of the road stance would be highlighted. I agree to a certain extent with what you are saying, but it goes against the argument that people are putting out there that he's too liberal to stand a chance in the general election.
Have you, by the way, read the stuff on Salon.com about the debate about Dean vs. the Democratic Leadership Council. They have all sorts of theories about how the Democrats are not polar opposites of the Republicans and how to win the Republican primary, you appeal to the conservative base and then run to the center for the general election. The thought with Democrats being that the Democratic primary does not happen the same way. I don't know all the ins and outs of it, but I thought the debate was interesting. Worth going over to Salon.com and waiting through the ads to get the free day pass to read even if you don't necessarily agree (and I don't know that I do. I don't pay enough attention to truly have an informed opinion).
I support Howard Dean. Yes he isn't a liberal, but a moderate, when you take in his whole ideology. He's stated many times that he is in fact a fiscal conservative. BUT people also leave out the whole 'social' issue. He's fiscally conservative, and probably one of the most liberal of the candidates on social issues. I would peg Howard Dean as a moderate that leans left on a lot of issues. Does that make sense?
Of course, I self-identify as a conservative Republican, but on a wide variety of issues, I share a pretty close position with Dean. I wouldn't consider Dean to be left-leaning on many of those issues. I would consider his position to be fairly centrist. Mostly because I would NEVER consider any of my opinions to be left-of-center.
Anybody, does Dean support gay marriages/unions? If so, I bet that the Reps are chomping at the bit to get Dean in the general election.
He doesn't support gay marriage, no one running does, but he does support civil unions. Has Bush figured out how to pronounce nuclear yet?
He's considered liberal because on the biggest issue of the year, he is associated with the far-left: Iraq.
People thought of him as liberal before Iraq. It's his stance on civil unions that gave him that label. And it's the reason he's unelectable. He'd make a great Secretary of Health & Human Services though.
Dean does support same sex civil unions and that's virtually the only issue on which he leans left. He is pro-death penalty and anti-gun control. Go to deanforamerica.com for a complete run down.
His position on the war is more mainstream all the time. The center is moving toward him there and making him look like Nostradamus.
Not quite. In fact Dean's social issues are pretty liberal. There are only two where he could be pegged conservative, gun control, and the death penalty. But he's pro-choice; pro-Affirmative Action; pro-environmental protection; and pro-equal rights for all. To me those issues Republicans/conservatives tend to skirt. Yes his gun control issues may be more conservative than the others. But his death penalty stance is still left of center. He only believes in using it in extreme cases such as (taken from his site): I believe the death penalty should be available for extreme and heinous crimes, such as terrorism or the killing of police officers or young children. But it must be carried out with scrupulous fairness. To me that isn't pretty conservative, but moderate left. Which Dean seems to be.
Those are good points about him not being liberal on the death penalty and gun control as well. So basically the only issue where he might fit the bill is civil unions? That's good for one question out of about 30-40 in the debates. I can't believe that that one issue would keep him from getting elected. As or his comments on Iraq, I just saw on Hardball where both sides of the aisle in congress are now considering investigations into the intel leading up to the Iraq war. I'd say he isn't left there. It does look like Dean had the forsight to ask for examination of the evidence before hand, and time has proven his stance wise. He definitely didn't fall for some knee jerk reaction despite the hype preceeding the war. He stayed calm during the pre-war storm. It doesn't matter if people agree with his stance on Iraq or civil unions, it's whether he's the far left, liberal guy who's out of touch with anything mainstream that he's being labeled. I don't know if people are trying to scare voters off from electing this guy as the nominee or why there has been such an effort to label Dean this way. But I don't see it, and I haven't seen anything that would automatically preclude him from being elected in a general election.
